Want a beautiful combination of dark flowers and green foliage? Here are all the details on African Blue Basil Plant Care that will help you grow this stunning herb. What is African Blue Basil? Also known as clove basil, African basil (Ocimum kilimandscharicum x basilicum) is a hybrid edible herb popular for culinary or medicinal purposes. It is a cross between camphor basil and a cultivar of basilicum ‘Dark Opal.’...
Most stationary and tumbler-style composters handle plant materials, paper and cardboard, some manures, and the occasional eggshell. Vermicomposters can handle all of those as well as occasional rice or pasta that can gum up a tumbler composter or draw pests if added too frequently. But only one method of composting can handle all of the above as well as dairy products and meats, and that is bokashi composting! Table of Contents...
By Erin Marissa Russell Want to learn about how to care for a Chinese money plant? We’ve got all the details, from planting to long-term care. Just keep reading to find out more. The Chinese Money Plant gets its name from the plant’s round, coin-shaped leaves. In fact, other names for Pilea peperomioides include coin plant, pancake plant, or UFO plant. This plant comes from China and is grown indoors as a houseplant in the United States....
Most gardeners snip away the side shoots of the vegetable as they suck out the important nutrients from the plant. Although, it is not the case with tomatoes. But what to do with them? Don’t Throw! Propagate Tomato Suckers & Make More Tomato Plants. Want to grow tomatoes from slices? Click here What are Tomato Suckers? Suckers are the side shoots that sprout from the point where the branches meet the main stem, botanically termed as ‘axil’ of the plant....
1. Farmhouse Style Tin Can Herb Planters These farmhouse style tin can herb planters are perfect for your kitchen windowsill or balcony shelves. 2. Cute Little Tin Can Herb Garden Check out how this blogger made these cute little planters for growing herbs in tin cans here. 3. Tea Tin Herb Garden Plant a tea tin herb garden with cork labels. The tutorial is here! 4. Kitchen Countertop Tin Can Herb Garden If you receive sunlight near your kitchen countertop, it’s easy to create a Kitchen Countertop Herb Garden like this from tin cans....
Mushrooms grow in all sorts of places associated with waste: fungi can grow on paper, on cardboard, sawdust everywhere. Their coincident growth is rather a different thing, but the fact is that growing mushrooms is difficult. You can’t grow them in ordinary garden soil. Organic materials on which mushrooms grow are called mushroom substrates and used coffee grounds work well for this purpose because they are cohesive and already been sterilized during the brewing process....
Jessica – Cantaloupe pie (Note from Niki – What? I have to try this one!) I love growing melons in the garden and buying them at the farmers market, but there’s only so much fresh melon a person can eat. About ten years ago, while searching for recipes that used cooked melon, I came across this awesome cantaloupe pie recipe in an issue of Kitchen Garden magazine. I’ve made a few of them every summer since then, and I’ve loved every bite!...
By Erin Marissa Russell and Matt Gibson Citrus scab is a fungal disease caused by the pathogen Elsinoe fawcettii and Elsinoe australis which causes the unsightly brown to pale orange wart-like scabs on the leaves, stems, and outer rinds of citrus fruit and citrus trees. The Elsinoe australis pathogen differs from Elsinoe fawcettii in that it only causes symptoms on fruits and not on the foliage of affected trees. As opposed to Elsinoe fawcetti, Elsinoe australis mainly impacts orange and mandarin orange trees....
If you are fed up with spotting large holes on your tomato foliage and want to bar those critters off your garden, learn How to Get Rid of Tomato Hornworms in the informative article below! Avoid these mistakes to grow the best tomatoes ever What are Tomato Hornworms? Tomato hornworms are large green caterpillars that grow 3-5 inches in length with white V-shaped spots on their bodies and a black horn....
Dichorisandra thyrsiflora flaunts its violet blue flowers and deep green foliage like an ambidextrous samurai wielding twin katanas… or maybe a Scottish Highlander brandishing two claymores… or a Ghilman with dual scimitars, perhaps. Dichorisandra thyrsiflora With some species, the blooms are the focal point. And with others, the glossy green leaves take center stage. It’s nice when ornamental plants can offer both floral interest and bold foliage in equal parts – and blue ginger is one such plant....
Now, I might be a bit biased. I was raised in the Rockies and more than once I laid out under the sun and inhaled the gin- and cedar-like perfume of these trees. Juniperus scopulorum The fantastic, easygoing Rocky Mountain juniper is a North American native that’s used to spruce up formal gardens and natural spaces alike. Birds love it, it can thrive in difficult-to-fill spots, and it adds year-round color and texture to the garden....
Regularly growing to over ten feet, often taller than it is wide, this shrub also has the potential to grow into a small tree. Older, more established plants can sometimes top 20 feet tall! Heteromeles arbutifolia Otherwise known as toyon, California holly, or Christmas berry, Heteromeles arbutifolia is an excellent slope-stabilizing and habitat plant, host to myriad insects including pollinating butterflies and moths. An iconic staple of California chaparral and oak woodlands, this evergreen shrub grows most commonly on north facing slopes, hill bottoms, and canyons....
If you keep it moist but not soggy, instead of drooping in the heat like so many annual flowering vines, it will reward you with a growth spurt in early summer, and with blooms and pods all summer long. Lablab purpureus Gardeners with day jobs aren’t the only ones who multitask. The fast-growing hyacinth bean vine functions as an ornamental plant, food source, and butterfly magnet, and even works as a beautiful privacy fence....
The flowers are nectar-rich and attract bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other pollinators. Plants can live up to 20 years in the right growing conditions. Do you think it’s even possible to have too many lavender plants? A fragrant favorite in flower beds and herb gardens, this striking perennial is versatile in many settings, from formal borders to naturalized wildflower gardens. The pretty flower heads are mostly available in shades of mauve to purple, but there are blue, pink, and white varieties as well....
Sweet potato or yam? There’s been some confusion about yams and sweet potatoes, so let’s set the record straight. Yams are a tropical crop grown mainly in the Caribbean and Africa. The yams I see in my local supermarket generally have brown, bark-like skin and white flesh that is starchy, like a white potato, when cooked. The roots vary in size and color, with some yams growing small and others getting several feet in length....
While factors such as nutritional deficiencies and fungal infections can produce these symptoms, yellowing leaves on kale are usually due to bacteria. Although kale plants are usually extremely healthy and rarely contract diseases in a home garden, sometimes they can suffer from infections. Your best way to prevent this is to keep your plants healthy and grow them under the appropriate conditions, i.e., full sun and cool temperatures. Covering your seedlings with floating row covers will keep out pests and keep water containing pathogens from splashing onto your kale plants....
A friend of mine just bought a new house and she recently asked me “Do you have any tips for winterizing gardens in the fall?”. This is a great question and one I get asked often. So I was inspired to share my checklist for putting my garden to bed in the fall. Before you read on or start scrolling down, let me just say that this list is looooong. I don’t want to overwhelm you with tons of different ways to winterize your garden!...
Flowers Want to know how long Orange Star Plants live? These Southern African natives are popular perennial bulbs with a long lifespan. But to get the most out of them, they need proper care and maintenance. Gardening expert Madison Moulton discusses how long these plants live for and how you can extend their lifespan as long as possible. By Madison Moulton Last updated: March 25, 2022 | 6 min read Orange Star Plants, featuring captivating bright orange flowers in the classic star-shape that gave it its common name, are ideal additions to any flower garden....
And many hours toiling over your flowers and veggies without protection can leave you susceptible to sunburn – and its damaging effects on your skin. Time spent in the garden is often time in the sun. And if you aren’t prepared for the heat, it’ll kick your booty! The seasoned gardeners out there are probably nodding along with me right now, but for those first breaking ground on their backyard, garden plot, or allotment, this might come as news to you....
If you love tropical plants, we have the perfect one for you. The taro plant, one of the many types of elephant ear plants, features gigantic leaves with a variety of unique colorings. Plus, it grows the taro root, which is actually one of the top staple foods around the world! Table of Contents Taro is an ancient plant. Originating in Southeast Asia, it’s believed to be one of the first plants ever cultivated....
